Telephone wires are generally of 24 or 26 gauge AWG wire and are provided in pairs, one of the wires in the pair being the tip wire and the other being the ring wire. In the United States of America, for example, telephone cables are provided with 25 pairs of wires or multiples thereof. Telephone wire connectors designed for use in the United States of America are, therefore, generally made to connect 25 pairs of wires.
One standard type of telephone cable connector comprises a female connector and a mating male connector. The female connector is formed on one surface with a recess having generally vertical interior side walls along which wiping contacts are arranged, the contacts being exposed on the opposite surface for making connection to the wires of a cable. The male connector is formed on one surface with a central rib having generally vertical sidewalls along which wiping contacts are arranged complementary to the wiping contacts on the female connector. The contacts on the male connector also extend through the opposite surface of the male connector for connection to the wires of the cable. Such connectors are, for example disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,277,426; 3,599,172; 3,657,682 and 3,760,335. Until now, the construction of such connectors has required that they be wired in two parallel rows generally perpendicular to the wiring surfaces of each of the male and female connector, making it extremely difficult to wire such connectors in series where multiple connections to a single cable are desired. Further, such connectors have required that separate strain relief be provided to prevent strain on the wire from being transferred to the contact element and degrading the connection.
Telephone cable connectors having wire stripping contact elements in parallel channels have previously been taught, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,779, and they are in widespread use because of their greater ease of application. However, the wire spacing in the standard male-female telephone cable connector is too close to permit the use of the cable connector of U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,779 due to the interference of the contact element with the wires on either side of the one it is connecting. The contact elements cannot simply be made narrower since they become too weak to make effective spring compression reserve contact with the wires.